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Firefly 2 Vaporizer

Technology’s best-selling pointhas always been that it makes our lives easier. The endless stream of gadgets and apps that constantly beg for our dollars always come with the promise of timed saved, clutter avoided, and overall simplicity.

Such trends can also be found in the vaporizer market, where ease of use is of paramount importance. Operating a Comcast remote control sober is hard enough; no one wants to remember a nuclear-launch-code’s worth of instructions just to be able to fry a bowl.

Unfortunately it appears the makers of the Firefly 2 didn’t get the memo.

There’s a lot to marvel at when reading up on this product. It heats up in less than three seconds, which is insanely fast. It comes with an extra battery — a rare inclusion in the vaporizer market. By employing a convection oven instead of a conduction oven, your flower or concentrate (it does both) will retain its full flavor.

This thing advertises itself as “the best vapor experience in the world,” but my problems with the unit started before I’d even taken a puff. Loading this thing is a pain, thanks to a magnetic cover that refused to budge. Fearful that I might break part of the device, I turned to Google. As a general rule, having to Google how to load loose leaf into your vaporizer is never a promising sign.

Eventually, I found a PDF of the manual, which was curiously omitted from the box. Maybe next time we cut down on the concentrate pads and make sure the instructions are included? Having successfully packed a bowl, I was ready to reap the benefits of my hard labor.

The Firefly 2’s key selling point is that, in essence, it allows the user to microdose cannabis. By placing ones fingers simultaneously at two touch points on either side of the bowl, the unit’s convection oven heats for 10 seconds, allowing you to get a full hit without burning excess product. In theory, it’s a great idea. In practice, it was more of a lasting frustration.

Like many other vaporizers on the market, the Firefly 2 comes with an app designed to help you adjust settings and maintain strict control over the device’s temperature. When I got next to no vapor on my first hit, I started tooling around. No matter how I tweaked the settings, the results remained unsatisfactory.

Once more, I turned to Google.

The sheer volume of returns I got after searching “ideal temperature Firefly 2” was staggering. There were forums across the web dedicated to the problem. Much like seeking the solution to a temperamental printer, everyone had a different solution. More telling, however, was the numerous responses the spoke of a “learning curve.”

“You’ll get it after some practice,” was a common refrain, except that I’m not trying to improve my free-throw shot. I have to learn enough outside of the time I dedicate to cannabis consumption. The last thing I’m eager to do is give my free time over to learning the specifics of a device when 10 other models can get the job done with the push of a button.

It’s only fair to note that for some people, it may be well worth the effort. Getting a precise and consistent dose of cannabis is an issue that has turned off many potential consumers, and anything that provides a solution to that is worth considering. Yet, I struggle to accept that there isn’t a way to streamline some of the issues I had with my Firefly 2.

For my money, I’d prefer to go with one of the numerous alternatives available on the market — the kind that don’t require any homework before delivering the goods.